Beat

CARSON, Calif. -- Samuel scored as the LA Galaxy picked up a 1-0 victory over Club Tijuana on Wednesday night.

The Brazilian forward put the Galaxy ahead in the 11th minute with a finish off a knock down by Robbie Keane. Tijuana's offense was under wraps for much of the game, but LA goalkeeper Jaime Penedo made two saves in the win.

A battle of attacking defensive midfielders, the two players will be looking to set the tempo for their respective teams early on.

Gyasi Zardes vs. Edgar Castillo

Speed vs. Speed. The hyperactive left back will look to push forward into the attack for Tijuana, but look for Zardes to attempt to take advantage of the space left by his agression to help the Galaxy.

Herculez Gomez vs. Omar Gonzalez

Whether Gomez will starts remains to be seen, but if he does, the Galaxy center back will have his hands full with the dangerous attacker. Expect the battle on the field to be as heated as their war of words.

CARSON, Calif. -- Club Tijuana's struggles away from Estadio Caliente are well documented, but whether the LA Galaxy will be able to exploit this weakness at StubHub Center remains to be seen.

Heading into their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series, Tijuana has gone winless in 19 consecutive league matches, but over that span, the team has won a total of three times away from home during CCL and Copa Libertadores play.

"It's something that we can't think about too much. There's obviously a weakness there somewhere on the road. We have to make sure that we don't give them the opportunity to do so on the road," said LA captain Robbie Keane. "When you haven't won in that long on the road there are some chinks in your armor that we can get at. That's what we're going to try and do."

In the final installment of our LA Galaxy vs. Club Tijuana video series, I take a look at the three most interesting pieces of content that were produced on LAGalaxy.com in the lead up to Wednesday's match.

CARSON, Calif. -- LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena and forward Landon Donovan spoke to reporters in a press conference at StubHub Center on Tuesday ahead of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Club Tijuana.

CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy came into the 2014 campaign eager to learn from the failures of a year ago, and they’ll get their first opportunity to right the wrongs of 2013 when they kick off their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series against Club Tijuana on Wednesday.

The two biggest letdowns of 2013 saw the LA Galaxy falter in two-leg series falling to C.F. Monterrey in the CCL Semifinals and Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference Semifinals. Despite being played months apart, both series featured similar problems for the Galaxy as the team was unable to convert a number of scoring opportunities in the home leg before crashing out away from StubHub Center.

To correct these issues, the Galaxy invested heavily in experienced players during the offseason in hopes of turning the club’s fortunes around. A strategy that the team is hoping will pay off come Wednesday evening against Club Tijuana.

“We have to learn our lessons from previous games,” said defender Todd Dunivant, who is expecting to be available for Wednesday’s match after dealing with a nagging injury. “When you talk about previous games, you look at the Monterrey home leg, where we were dominating that game for 80 minutes and feeling confident that we could get another goal or another two goals but we lost our shape and when you do that against good teams it’s going to hurt you. We have to be smart.

“This year, this team has brought in more experienced players with guys like Rob Friend, Stefan Ishizaki that have been in big games and won championships in other countries,” Dunivant added. “There’s definitely a different mood around our clubhouse.”

And the first lesson that the Galaxy must learn? Finish their chances at home.

“In both of those games, we played very well, but we didn't finish our chances and it gets magnified in these series,” said Landon Donovan. “In a series like this, every goal is important. In both of those games, we played well at home, but we couldn’t finish our chances. We just have to be better in front of goal. It’s as simple as that.”

Cheeseman, 37, has been with AEG since 2001 when he served as an Account Executive for the Los Angeles Kings. The AEG COO splits time between the Kings and the Galaxy, and works closely with Klein and the Galaxy front office.

The LA Galaxy are looking ahead to their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series against Club Tijuana and in the lead up to Tuesday's match, CONCACAF.com spoke to several members of the club on the upcoming tournament.

The video includes a few interesting and dramatic shots of StubHub Center as well as informative interviews so check it out below.